It's sometimes funny how God brings people into your life. A year and a half ago Andrew and I on a whim went to this meet up for a company called Trades of Hope. I had followed one of the founders online for some time and she was going to be in Kansas City talking about her company, a fair trade jewelry business. While there, Andrew and I met this woman from Kansas City named Debi, who is coincidentally Sarah's mom. Funny how things like that work out!
I had no idea until I met her, just how much Sarah and I have in common. Sarah loves to travel, and if you'll notice the few photos with the South African flag, she wants to move there eventually to work as a missionary. (I mean how cool is this girl!?) She is also a filmmaker and wants to go to college to major in film. As if all that wasn't enough, she also sings and performs in her schools musicals. Girl after my own heart! It was such a joy to photograph Sarah in downtown Kansas City. Her natural beauty is breathtaking, and editing these photos was so much fun for me. I'm also finding out my new favorite thing to do is shoot once the sun goes down. I usually would always say, "Okay we're done. No more light." once the sun was below the horizon, but recently I've kept shooting, even when t's almost pitch black in real life. In editing you can bring that exposure back up and there is some beautiful grain that I LOVE. #FunFact Sarah's entire 3rd outfit was shot when the sun had already gone below the horizon. Enjoy looking through these! To view click the first photo & use the arrow keys to view slideshow style.
0 Comments
People nag on social media for replacing our genuine human relationships, but strangely enough, the more I use it, the more I get to meet beautiful souls all over this world who turn into great friends. Enter Rachel & Josh. Rachel messaged me on Instagram a month and a half ago wondering where in the world I was located, and if there was any way I could do her engagement photos in Maryland. Lucky for her, when photography is concerned, anywhere in the world IS where I'm located, ;) So I booked a plane ticket, an Airbnb, and off I went to Baltimore, Maryland. These two sweet souls drove me to my Airbnb, and we headed off to eat pizza, cause OBVIOUSLY that's the first thing one does when one meets new friends.
Over deep dish pizza I heard these two share their incredible love for each other, how they met 7 years ago at church and were friends for a long time. Then Rachel moved to Florida with her family, and they both realized how much they liked each other. One of those cases of you don't realize what you have until it's gone. ;) So she moved back up to Maryland, and they never looked back. When we were done eating pizza, we headed back to where we parked our car, and to our dismay, after spending 30 minutes searching for it, we realized it had been towed. Now had these two been even an ounce of uptight, this easily could have ruined the photos and the rest of our night. But guys, I can't even begin to tell you how chill and down to earth Josh & Rachel were. Of course, nobody ever wants to have their car towed (it's annoying and expensive), but even in the midst of an ugly situation, these two impressed me so much with their go with the flow attitude. After realizing the impound lot was only a 16 minute walk away, and realizing the sun was going down with every passing minute, I suggested we begin taking photos as we walked. So crazily enough, the first section of this album was taken on our way to the Baltimore impound lot. Maybe it was less than ideal at the time, but what a wonderful story they get to tell for years to come! Once the car was retrieved, we headed down to Fell's Point on the harbor, changed outfits, and made the most out of every ounce of twilight God gave us. I'm so thankful for Josh & Rachel. They took a chance on me, when they easily could have hired a local photographer. I'm so thankful for instagram handles that turn into dream clients and strangers that turn into friends. Baltimore left such a sweet taste in my mouth and it was all because of these two. Can we talk about how STUNNING Naomi is for a second?? This girl has a seriously infectious smile that lights up a room, not to mention ridiculous #hairgoals. I've determined that curls + sunflowers go together SO well. And this girl makes twilight & dead corn look reaaalll good. I loved the grainy film look we were able to capture once the sun went down. Naomi is an INCREDIBLE volleyball player who not only scored a spot on the top 100 for the class of '17 volleyball recruits, but has already been recruited to play volleyball at Creighton University next fall. Girl's got looks and skills. It was such an honor to get to shoot with her. We had a blast at the Grinter's Sunflower Farm, even though it was a tad bit muddy. (Who said getting a bit dirty for a shot was a bad thing?)
Take a look at Naomi's session, and if you are needing some senior portraits of your own, just holla at your girl. ;) I don't really ever post stuff on here that's not my own, but a year and a half ago I took a course that changed my business and life so much that I HAVE to share the love.
Last December I signed up for Jenna's webinar, listened as Jenna shared her heart about how she doubled her photography income in 2 years after she just left a corporate job. She completely defied the entrepreneur life by keeping it real, being savvy smart, and making it a priority to connect with others over making money. I then signed up to be apart of her photography course, The Photo Lab, then called Marketing for Photographers, and my business completely changed after implementing what she taught. Guys, I cannot even tell you the stuff she teaches and how it will revolutionize your business if you are a photographer. She teaches you how to not just be a service to your clients, but to really wow them and give them so much more. She teaches you to value yourself as an artist and charge what you're worth. She teaches you the ins and outs of how to put together a beautiful pricing guide, how to blog, instagram, and Facebook your work. She talks about client communication, email templates, and SO much more. If you are a photographer and are needing to restart your business and life, I HIGHLY recommend checking out one of her FREE webinars this week! She's offering them TUES/WED/THURS and you can sign up at bit.ly/jktraining. Watch it. It will change yo life. OH my lanta you guys. Luke & Caitlin. These two have such fun loving and adventurous souls it was a DREAM to photograph them. They were so down to earth and up for anything which made my photographer heart so happy. Long story short, Caitlin and Luke heard about me through a mutual friend, heard I was going to be in at the Sand Dunes for labor day weekend, and jumped on the chance to do an adventure session with me. I am SO happy they did. Luke works with something smart and technical that I can't even name because it's way above my head (sorry Luke :P), and Caitlin owns her own music therapy practice. They live in Denver with their adorable pup Sophie who makes some cute and hilarious cameos in their session. When we met on Sunday, September 4th, we all instantly connected. We had lunch in Alamosa and realized just how similar we all were. Both Luke & Andrew are tech & engineer minded, while Caitlin and I love the arts. The rest of the afternoon and evening played out like an adventurous double date with a camera. We climbed, talking and stopping occasionally to take photos. It was the stuff of dreams. When we had finished making the dunes our playground, we were having so much fun that nobody wanted the night to end. So we drove back to Alamosa in search of pizza and beer. We couldn't find the beer, but Dominoes provided on the pizza just fine.
I'm SO excited to finally share this adventure session with you all. This is my heart. This is what I love to do. Capturing wild love with real couples in adventurous places. Out of everything in my portfolio so far, I'm most proud of this work. I hope you enjoy looking through these! And if you want to have your own adventure session with me, let me know!! I would love nothing more than to capture your love story on the side of a mountain, on a beautiful beach, or wherever the wind takes us. **View slideshow style by clicking on the first photo & using arrow keys to scroll. Wow. 24, where do I even begin. You completely rocked my world in every way. I'm always going to believe that the best is yet to come, but 24 was such a beautiful, life changing year that, the future has a lot to live up to. This past year my life changed in a lot of ways. I got engaged, turned a hobby into a dream, got married, and turned that dream into a full time job. 24 took me a lot of places too, from California, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kentucky, to the Dominican Republic, and finally Wisconsin. I finished a year long goal of making a video from one second every day in 2015. I attended the 1989 concert & fangirled hard. I visited my first National Park, got fired for the first time, realized being let go of a job that doesn't give me joy was the best thing that could have happened to me, flew first class for the first time, watched my freshman year dorm crumble to the ground, got a job educating highschoolers about AIDS, and had soo many mexican girls nights with my roomies, I saw girlfriends from different parts of my life all come together and stand up with me at my wedding, moved into an apartment with my new husband, and I learned that marriage is so hard, but worth every minute. I learned some lessons too. I learned that sometimes you may not enjoy doing something, but God asks you to do it faithfully anyway. I learned that if there's a girl sitting by herself, to go introduce yourself and say hi. You'll find out you both have a lot in common, and she'll become one of your great friends, and coincidentally she'll later ask you to design her tattoo EEEK! (talking to you Janel.) I learned that this life is 100% what you make it. If you see the bad in every day, life is pretty much going to suck. But if you see the goodness of God, and the joy that He brings no matter your circumstances, every day will be an adventure. I learned that for all the meticulous planning and designing and registering and paying you do for your wedding, the best part of that day will always be the person standing at the end of the aisle. I learned that the Dominicans love a drink called Mamajuana and that it apparently leads to making babies (their words.) I learned (and truthfully am still learning) that perfection is a myth, and that nobody's life is perfect, no matter how pretty it looks on Instagram. And finally, I learned pretty recently that if you want something in life, all you have to do is ask for it. Ask God, and ask people for help. Reach out to others, and dream big. If we don't ask for what we want, oftentimes we will never get it. This year was all about life changes and dream chasing for me. It was about not apologizing for the things that set your soul of fire. It was about fearlessly chasing the heart of God. I cannot wait to see what He has in store for me in year 25. I'm now a quarter of a century old. Halfway through my 20's. Wow. That's pretty cool guys. So 25, I'm pretty stoked to see what you have in store for me, but I just have one thing to tell you: 24 killed it, and you have some big shoes to fill. Let's fill um. ;) |
About Me
Wedding Photographer. Adventurer. Newlywed. Obsessed with twinkle lights, drinking my coffee black, and living a life full of love & grace. Categories
All
Archives
December 2016
Categories
All
|